On April 26, 1900, Charles Francis Richter was born in Hamilton, Ohio – world-renowned American seismologist and physicist, creator of the magnitude scale for measuring the strength of earthquakes.
He graduated from Stanford University (1920) and received his doctorate in theoretical physics from the California Institute of Technology (Caltech).
In 1935, together with Benno Gutenberg, he developed the Richter scale, which allows for an objective quantitative comparison of the energy released during seismic tremors.
Charles Richter was far from the typical dry office scientist.
Richter was so devoted to science that he installed a working seismograph in his own home in Pasadena. He often showed the long paper tapes with recordings to his guests to remind them that the Earth is in constant motion.
Together with his wife Lillian, he was an active environmentalist and nudist. The two regularly attended nudist camps, and according to some sources, Richter enjoyed hiking in the mountains completely naked at night while composing poetry.
Avid "Trek" fan: At the age of 66, Richter watched the first episode of the original "Star Trek" series and became a devoted fan. He kept detailed notes on each of the series' 79 episodes.
Richter spoke seven languages and knew the names of all the plants in the Los Angeles Arboretum. He also wrote poetry and fiction throughout his life.
He initially studied chemistry at Stanford, but often broke laboratory glassware. On the advice of his teacher, he turned to physics, which later led him to seismology.
He did not like the name “Richter Scale“. He always emphasized the key role of his colleague Benno Gutenberg and often called the invention simply “the scale“ or “that damn scale“, dissatisfied that his colleague's name remained in the shadows.
Although Richter always gave Benno Gutenberg his due, there was tension in scientific circles because only Richter's name became world famous. The scandal here is more historical - the fact that Gutenberg was the more experienced scientist, but because he was a German immigrant with an accent, the media preferred the “photogenic” and sweet-talking American Richter as the face of seismology.
Richter and his wife Lillian had an extremely unconventional marriage in the 1930s and 1940s. They practiced what we would now call an “open relationship”, with both having extramarital affairs with the other's knowledge – a subject that was absolutely taboo in academic circles at the California Institute of Technology.
Many of his colleagues considered him extremely “weird”. He would often fall into long silences during conversations or start reciting poetry in the middle of serious scientific discussions. Some modern biographers have suggested that Richter may have been on the autism spectrum (Asperger's syndrome), which explains his difficulties with social interaction and his obsessive attention to detail.
He died on September 30, 1985, in Pasadena, California. In the hospital, shortly before his death, Richter had been watching news reports of a major earthquake in Mexico and had listened to reporters use his scale to describe the strength of the tremor.